CDU workshop talk: pacified for the time being | TIME ONLINE

Like the CDU her reaction to a sentence of the chairperson shows: the first migration policy workshop of the CDU has just come to an end, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer pays tribute to the results in the atrium of the Konrad Adenauer House. "The rule of law should not be fooled," she says, and the spontaneous, rousing applause expresses the relief of those present to about 100 Christian Democrats that things may soon improve: shorter asylum procedures, shorter legal channels, swift expulsion of asylum seekers and offenders If necessary, from the custody, no more social benefits for those who come back immediately after their deportation.

Many people – even in the CDU – perceived what happened in 2015 as a loss of control: Kramp-Karrenbauers CDU predecessor and chancellor Angela Merkel At that time decided to take dozens of buses with refugees stranded in Hungary in Germany, came in the following days and weeks hundreds of thousands of refugees in the country, some unregistered. Many are still there today, although their application for asylum was rejected. Because they went to court instead of returning voluntarily or because their deportation failed for a variety of reasons. Since then, the CDU has lost hundreds of thousands of voters, most of them to the AfD.

Editor in the Department of Politics, Economics and Society, ZEIT ONLINE

to the author page

Kramp-Karrenbauer had imposed her own election on Merkel's successor, the CDU must "finally clarify", as they judge the fall of 2015. From this she would have to learn lessons. The clarification was quickly done: Kramp-Karrenbauer repeated in her closing speech on several occasions, which Merkel has said many times: 2015 was an exception due to a humanitarian emergency situation and should not be repeated.

No blame

Nobody in the one-and-a-half-day workshop talks openly blamed Merkel or the other CDU officials at the time. "Looking ahead is important," said the CDU Bundestag MP Philipp Amthor. A "further, institutionalized work-up is not necessary", also affirmed the North Rhine-Westphalian CDU member of parliament Christos Katzidis, also other respondents saw it so.

Instead of the fall of 2015, the workshop therefore dealt with the lessons to be learned for the future: "Lesson learned," said Kramp-Karrenbauer, in Randgesprächen this spin was also heard by participants. A wanted message so, the signal: It is no longer about the yesterday. But the next time we do everything better.

Because despite all the assurances that 2015 should not be repeated, in the Union many realize that migration will remain an issue in the coming years. "We assume that the situation of 2015 could come back," said the CDU interior politician Armin Schuster at the presentation of the workshop results. A situation in which Germany must quickly receive a large number of refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan or Africa, examine their request for protection and integrate or return it.